[Relentless 01.0] Relentless

by Karen Lynch

  For some reason, that did not surprise me. “What did you find?”

  “Nothing at first. Not until the last two girls went missing. I had a bunch of searches running, cross-referencing school records, social websites, and some other not-so-public records when I came up with something all four girls had in common. They were all adopted.”

  “What?”

  He nodded slowly. “What are the odds of vampires taking four blond, adopted girls of the same age in Portland? It’s no coincidence.”

  “My God.” I felt the color drain from my face.

  “I don’t know how you stayed under their radar, but keep doing it. My guess is that they want to use Madeline’s daughter as bait to draw her out.”

  “I don’t understand. Vampires must have a lot of resources. It should have taken them no time to track down my uncle and find me.”

  David shook his head. “I can find anyone if there’s a paper trail, and I couldn’t find you. It looked like you went into the foster care system and then just disappeared. Someone obviously went through a lot of trouble to hide you. I didn’t even know there was an uncle until you mentioned him.”

  Someone hid me – and Nate? They must be really good to hide the fact that my dad had a brother. But who would do that and why? The werewolves had a large network, but Maxwell had said he only suspected vampires had killed my father. Surely if he or someone he knew had covered my trail, he would have told me after everything that had happened in the last month. And it wasn’t the Mohiri because they didn’t even know I existed before a month ago.

  “Whoever did it was very thorough, and you owe them a big thank you if you ever find them, because they probably saved your life. Just keep your head down and don’t do anything to draw the vampires’ attention to you, and you should be okay.”

  I gulped soundlessly. Too late.

  “From what I’ve heard, the vampires are keeping a very low profile in Portland now. That scares me even more. I’m a freelance programmer, and I can do that from anywhere. I’m leaving for a while, heading south to stay with some friends.” He gave me a small smile. “That’s why I agreed to come here today. Something told me I had to meet you before I left.”

  “David, you don’t know what this meant to me, to learn anything about what happened to my dad. I still have questions, but I feel like I’m closer to understanding it all now.” The aching hole in my heart felt a tiny bit smaller after meeting the one person who shared my painful history. I’d never find real closure as long as my dad’s murderer was alive and free to kill again. But I always knew this was as close as I would get. It had to be enough.

  David pulled out his wallet and laid some bills on the table. “Listen, I have to go. Keep your head down, kid, until this mess blows over. You know where to reach me online if you want to talk.” He fixed me with a hard stare. “I understand how badly you want answers, because I’ve spent years trying to find my own, but it’s not worth risking your life. Be careful who you talk to online and especially who you meet.” He smiled. “I know that’s weird advice from a guy you met online, but the next one might not be as nice as me.”

  I stayed in the booth and watched David walk out to a white Ford Focus and drive away. When I had planned this meeting, I never really knew what to expect or what I hoped to get out of it. Meeting David and learning how he had suffered because of his father’s association with Madeline made me despise my mother even more. My dad, David’s dad, and those girls – how many more people would be hurt because of her?

  One thing was clear; this was way bigger than me and David and our fathers’ murders. If Madeline was still out there, and she knew the identity of a Master. The Mohiri needed to know about it. With their resources, they could track her down and find out what she knew, and if anyone had the firepower to go up against a Master, it was Nikolas’s people.

  I glanced at my watch. It was two-thirty, which meant we’d been gone from Dylan’s for over an hour. I grimaced as I slid out of the booth. Maybe my news about the Master would deflect some of Nikolas’s anger. Not likely, but a girl could hope.

  I left the diner and joined Peter, who stood by the old phone booth. He wore a relieved smile as I approached him. “Well, how’d it go?” he asked impatiently.

  “He knew a lot more than I expected. His father and Madeline knew each other.”

  “Seriously? Tell me what he said.”

  I rubbed at the beginning of a headache. “Can we talk about this later with Roland? I just want to call Phil and go back to Dylan’s before Nikolas finds us.”

  His face fell, but he didn’t push it. “Okay. You call Phil, and I’m going to run in and get a milkshake. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  I pointed to the picnic tables partially hidden by a semi on the other side of the parking lot. “I’ll be over there.” The tables had a good view of the interstate so we could see Phil’s car when he arrived. I sat on the hard wooden seat and pulled out my phone.

  “Date ran off and left you, did he?” a male voice jeered from behind me before I could make my call.

  Am I being punished for some horrible crime in a former life? I groaned inwardly, turning on the seat to face Scott. “Go away, Scott. I’m so not in the mood.”

  “Free country. If you don’t like me here, you can always leave.”

  I started to make a retort then decided it wasn’t worth it. Fighting with Scott seemed so petty after the things I’d learned today. “Suit yourself,” I muttered, turning my back to him again.

  His footsteps moved away, and I couldn’t help but think I needed to try this tactic the next time I wanted to get rid of unwanted company. I had just finished congratulating myself when he walked in front of me to sit on the next picnic table.

  “Are you broken down here or something?” he asked, scanning the vehicles in the parking lot. His voice held curiosity instead of scorn, and I wondered why he even bothered to ask.

  “Why? You offering a lift?”

  It was meant as a joke, and I was surprised when it seemed to take him off guard. He looked off to the side and back at me. “I… no.”

  “So what do you want?”

  “What makes you think I want anything from you?” he asked defensively.

  I waved a hand at him. “Oh, I don’t know. You’re hanging around a highway rest stop on a Saturday, talking to me of all people. You couldn’t find anyone else to fight with?”

  His brow furrowed in a scowl, but whatever he said to me went unheard. My full attention was drawn to a man standing beside a black Escalade on the other side of the rest stop. His profile seemed familiar, and I strained to make out his face. At this distance, I could only tell he had dark hair and a dark, olive complexion, but something made me think I knew him from somewhere.

  The man shifted position, and I saw thick eyebrows, a square jaw, and an unsmiling mouth. A jolt of recognition went through me, and I ducked my head. He was one of the men from the marina.

  He didn’t get a good look at me that night, I thought frantically, trying to slow my racing heart. I had to calm down and act normal. The man was alone, and he had no idea who I was. It was nothing more than a coincidence that he was here now. Still, I really wished Peter would hurry up. Ignoring Scott’s puzzled look, I raised my head enough to peek at the man again. My breath caught.

  The man looked right at me and smiled.

  Chapter 16

  My gut clenched. This was very, very bad.

  I scrambled away from the picnic table and stood like a cornered rabbit with my heart thumping in my chest before my mind began to quickly evaluate my options. The Escalade was on the far side of the parking lot. The diner was blocked from view by the semi, but I knew it was closer than the SUV. Even if the man was fast, I could make it to the diner and Peter and hope the man did not want to risk a public commotion.

  The man must have realized it, too, because he started walking briskly toward us. Any hope that he did not recognize me drained away.

>   Scott stood. “What’s wrong?”

  Movement to my right brought me up short. A dark figure stepped into view around the rear of the semi. Tall and thin, he was dressed in a black robe covered in strange symbols that shimmered in the sun like white gold. A black hood covered his head and hid his face from me, but I could feel something, some kind of power emanating from him. He halted and reached up to push back the hood, and my mouth opened in a silent gasp. The man – if he was a man – was as black as ebony with a small black goatee and a bald head. His face and head were covered in a strange pattern of red and white markings that appeared to be gouged into his skin. But it was his eyes that sent fear racing along my spine. Two white orbs glowed in the black face, and when they turned on me I felt like a deer staring into two headlights coming out of the dark.

  “What the fuck is that?”

  Scott’s bewildered voice pulled me from my own paralysis. “Run!” I yelled and whirled away to bolt in the only direction available, toward the interstate.

  Hands grabbed my arms roughly from behind, and I cried out. I twisted and kicked at the person restraining me, but he held me in an iron grip. “It is no use to struggle,” he said in a clipped Middle Eastern voice. “You are coming with me.”

  “Help!” I screamed as I was spun toward the SUV. I saw Scott on the ground looking dazed, and I realized my attacker must have hit him. “Scott,” I yelled at him. “Please help me!”

  “What the hell?” he moaned, teetering to his feet. “Someone hit me.”

  The man began pulling me backward, effortlessly dragging me away from the picnic tables. “Do something!” I shouted at Scott.

  At first I thought he was going to stand there and watch me get hauled away. It took him a minute to comprehend what was happening, and then he started toward us. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing? L-Let her go…”

  He stammered to a stop, and his expression went blank. I watched in confusion while he stood swaying in a trancelike state. My eyes went to the tattooed man and found him watching Scott with a small smile on his face.

  “Leave him alone! He’s got nothing to do with this.”

  “Come with me and your boyfriend will be okay,” the man holding me barked.

  “No!” I struggled and screamed Peter’s name.

  Dragged backward, I stumbled and almost felt. The man jerked me up, and I used the momentum to bring my head up and slam him hard under the chin. I heard his jaw crack at the same time pain shot through my skull. He staggered, and his grip loosened enough for me to tear free. I spun to face him and kicked out, landing a hard blow to the side of his knee. Off balance, he fell to the ground swearing. I could tell he would not be down for long.

  I heard running feet as Peter tore around the front of the semi and took in the scene before him. “Sara!” he bellowed and tossed his milkshake aside, racing toward me. He reached me just as my attacker gained his footing again.

  “Watch out!” I yelled to Peter.

  Peter turned as a hard fist flew at his face. Moving faster than I’d ever seen him go, he leaned to one side and brought his own fist up, slamming it into the man’s stomach. The man parried with a shot aimed at Peter’s chest, but he only managed a hit to the shoulder. Peter recovered fast and delivered a second punch to his opponent’s gut. I had never seen Peter fight, and the force and speed of his blows surprised me. It also answered my question about whether or not werewolves were strong in their human form. It was clear that my friend was more than a match for the larger, more muscled man.

  I was so engrossed in the fight it took me several seconds to register the gentle pressure on my mind, touching, prodding like fingers testing a piece of fruit. My mental walls flew up, and I sensed a flare of surprise from the one trying to invade my head. In the next moment, it surged forward with a force that left me gasping. Horrified recognition filled me as the thing buzzed inside my head like a live wire. My walls faltered at the shock of encountering the same awful presence that had infected the rat at the marina, and my hesitation was all the alien force needed to shove its way around my defenses.

  I screamed and grabbed my head as the thing invaded me. It reached into the recesses of my mind, and wherever it touched, it left a path of filth like the slime trail of a slug. In the back of my mind I felt the Mori recoil as my whole being shuddered at the violation, the slow rape of my mind.

  “Sleeeep,” a chilling voice hissed in my head. “All is welll.”

  “No…” I protested weakly. A cool numbing fog began to steal over me until I no longer felt the ugliness in my head, or much else.

  “You will sleeeep now.”

  “Can’t…” I mumbled as my eyes grew heavy.

  My walls fell. I was vaguely aware of something cold and slimy burrowing inside me like a parasite. The Mori shrieked in agony. Choking, dying, the Mori was dying. I’d always hated the dark thing that had been a part of me my whole life. I should be happy now that the beast would be no more. Instead, sadness bloomed in my chest and tears of grief welled in my eyes.

  Coldness reached down, inching toward the center of my being. It came up against my last defense, the gate that held back the wellspring of my power. “Let meee innn,” it commanded as icy fingers pulled at the barrier in vain. I did as it asked, and I felt its triumph as it punched through and touched the essence of me.

  Someone began to scream.

  I was on fire. No, I was the fire. Roaring, raging, I was an angry volcano spewing molten rock up from deep within the earth. The lava scorched everything in its path with a cleansing fire that burned away the coldness and filth and bore down on the ugly thing pulsing in my mind. I felt a flash of terror that was not my own, and then the pressure in my head was gone.

  My eyes opened to see the witch – I knew what he was now – stagger and fall to his knees. His eyes no longer glowed white, and his face had paled to a dark gray. “What… are you?” he choked, his black eyes full of shock and fear.

  Instead of answering him, I stood and turned my attention to Peter who still fought my assailant. They traded blows like it was a heavyweight match, and I wondered how either of them was still standing. Across the parking lot, several men stood near their cars watching the fight, but no one moved to break it up. Anger rose in me. What was wrong with these people? They were going to just stand there while teenagers were attacked in broad daylight?

  Peter appeared to be gaining ground, and I watched breathlessly as he forced the older man backward with each blow. I glanced behind me nervously at the witch, expecting him to recover and try that mind magic on me again. But he was still on his knees with both hands on the ground like he was about to pass out. Good, serves you right.

  “Argh!”

  At Peter’s cry of pain, I whirled back to the fight to find him clutching his belly and blood running between his fingers. The dark-haired man advanced on him again, brandishing a bloody knife and wearing a sneer that left no doubt about his deadly intentions.

  A howl of rage escaped me as I threw myself at the man’s back, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his throat in a stranglehold that might have broken the neck of a smaller person. My would-be kidnapper dropped his weapon and clawed at my arms as I clung to him, squeezing his windpipe with strength I did not know I had and screaming like a banshee. The fear, the pain, the endless attacks for the last month had finally made me snap, and I poured all my pent up anger and fear into choking the life from the man who was trying to kill my friend.

  We tumbled to the ground as the man’s legs went out from underneath him, and the impact jolted me from my murderous rage. Beneath me, the man was no longer moving, but I felt his chest rise and fall so I knew he was still alive. I loosened my chokehold and looked around for Peter, emitting a squeak when I found him lying on the ground a few feet away.

  “Peter?” I disentangled my arms and legs from the prone man and crawled across the grass to my friend. Peter’s normally pale face was so white that even his freck
les looked washed out. His eyes opened when I leaned over him, and I saw they were glazed with pain.

  “Oh, Peter!” Gut wounds were always the worst, and I had no idea if his accelerated werewolf healing worked in human form. I pressed my hand over his stomach to staunch the flow of blood.

  He tried to smile and failed miserably. “A knife is nothing compared to a crocotta claw.”

  I fumbled for my cell phone with my free hand. “I’ll call nine-one-one. Don’t worry; you’ll be okay.”

  “More are coming.”

  The deep African voice drew my eyes from Peter to the witch, who was sitting back on his heels watching me.

  “What?”

  “Tarek.” He pointed to the unconscious man behind me. “He called for backup as soon as we found you. They will be here very soon.”

  His meaning was clear. If I waited for the police or an ambulance, Tarek’s reinforcements would get to us first. “Why are you telling me this?”

  The witch shrugged. I had no reason to trust the person who had just tried to violate my mind, but then he could have kept his mouth shut and let me be ambushed.

  “How did you find us? Were you following me?”

  He let out a deep laugh. “You are not such easy prey. I merely sensed your mind as we passed by. But the others know you’re here now.”

  I looked at Peter. “We can’t stay here. We have to go.”

  He grimaced. “I know.”

  “Can you stand?” My hands slipped behind his shoulders and helped him into a sitting position. Between the both of us, we managed to get him to his feet.

  “Come on.” I wrapped an arm around him, and together we walked slowly toward the diner. I wanted to urge him to go faster, but his haggard breaths told me how much pain he was in. I felt him weakening with every step.

  As we neared the diner, it looked less and less like the refuge I thought it would be. These men had no qualms about attacking me in the middle of the afternoon alongside a busy interstate. People like that would think nothing of barging inside the restaurant and taking us. I looked around frantically. We couldn’t stay here, and we couldn’t call Phil and wait for him to show up. We needed to get out of here now.